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Health & Medicine

The Museum's collections of medical science artifacts represent nearly all aspects of health and medical practice. Highlights include early X-ray apparatuses, such as one of Wilhelm Roentgen's tubes, penicillin mold from Alexander Fleming’s experiments, and Jonas Salk's original polio vaccine. More recent acquisitions include the first artificial heart implanted in a human, the earliest genetically engineered drugs, and materials related to David, the "Bubble Boy." Other artifacts range from artificial limbs and implant devices to bloodletting and dental instruments, beauty products, and veterinary equipment. The contents of a medieval apothecary shop and an 1890s drugstore form part of the collections, along with patent and alternative medicines. The collections also document the many differing perspectives on health and medical issues, from patients, family members, doctors, nurses, medical students, and out-of-the-mainstream health practitioners.

Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one created by ACCD, the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities. Before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 provided the core of legal protection for most people with disabilities. Disability activists organized protests and sit-ins to pressure the government into signing the regulations needed to implement the law. Joseph A. Califano, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare signed the regulations in 1977.

Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one. Before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 provided the core of legal protection for most people with disabilities. The caricature is of President Ronald Reagan. He threatened to rescind 504 and other disability-related regulations.

A patient at Winnebago State Hospital in Wisconsin made this key from “found” materials. It is one of three owned by the museum from that institution. Opened in 1873, Winnebago housed people diagnosed with psychiatric conditions. The key was confiscated but the record of it is blank as to its maker, date, or intended purpose. Although the artifact is anonymous, its maker is nonetheless powerfully evident.

A patient at Winnebago State Hospital in Wisconsin made this key from “found” materials. It is one of three owned by the museum from that institution. Opened in 1873, Winnebago housed people diagnosed with psychiatric conditions. The key was confiscated but the record of it is blank as to its maker, date, or intended purpose. Although the artifact is anonymous, its maker is nonetheless powerfully evident.

A patient at Winnebago State Hospital in Wisconsin made this key from “found” materials. It is one of three owned by the museum from that institution. Opened in 1873, Winnebago housed people diagnosed with psychiatric conditions. The key was confiscated but the record of it is blank as to its maker, date, or intended purpose. Although the artifact is anonymous, its maker is nonetheless powerfully evident.

For many years, this grave marker marked the final resting place of Bertha Flaten in the cemetery at Faribault State School and Hospital in Minnesota. Flaten spent much of her life in an institution because she had a seizure disorder. When she died in 1905, her grave was located by a number rather than her name or dates. This stark record-keeping practice was common in state institutions across the country. Former patient in-mates, their families, and descendants have been replacing such markers with proper recognition, in an effort to restore their humanity.

Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one. It is a criticism of electro-convulsive shock treatment, used on people with psychiatric disabilities.

The message this T-Shirt is intended to convey is that some psychiatric patients experience oppression that is invisible to others. The shirt was created by Support-In International, a group of former patients who advocate for acceptance and dignity.

For many years, iron stake number 72 marked the final resting place of either Sarah Savage, an African-American woman, or Nathanial Cowart, a European American man, in the cemetery at the State Hospital at Milledgeville, Georgia. The ambiguity is because administrators used numbers more than once and the stakes were removed from the ground in the late twentieth-century. When Savage and Cowart died in 1880, their graves were located by a number rather than their name or dates. This stark record-keeping practice was common in state institutions across the country. Former patient in-mates, their families, and descendants have been replacing such markers with proper recognition in an effort to restore their humanity.

Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one from Phoenix, Arizona.